Overview:

Professional Summary:

I am the director of the Division of Cognitive and Behavioral Neurosciences in the Department of Neurology. I founded the Neurodiagnostic Laboratory at Buffalo General Hospital and I was the associate director of the Sleep Disorder Center of Western New York. I am a Diplomate in the American Board of Sleep Medicine and a Fellow in the American Psychological Association.

My research is in the area of cognitive and behavioral neuroscience with particular interest in the neurophysiological basis of cognitive functioning, intellectual abilities, attention, and the role of sleep and sleep disorders, such as apnea, on neurocognitive functioning. The major methodological approach used in my laboratory is a combination of electrophysiological (mainly event-related brain potentials), neuropsychological, and other behavioral methods. Collaborative positron emission tomography (PET) and MRI studies have also been conducted in combination with electrophysiology. Both clinical and nonclinical populations are being studied. Populations studied have included infants, children, and adults, as well as animals. Recent work with clinical populations has focused on cognitive disturbances in autoimmune disorders such as Multiple Sclerosis and Systemic Lupus Erythematosus. Also, recent research has been directed at brain mechanisms of cognitive control such as conflict resolution and response inhibition. The development of novel electrophysiological markers of neural efficiency and cognitive function via state-of-the art dense electrophysiological techniques is also a focus of the research. In general, the research takes a systems approach to understanding cognitive functioning.

Research and clinical training/teaching are important functions of the division. Over the years, our laboratory has mentored and trained undergraduate and graduate students, medical students, medical residents, and neuropsychology postdoctoral fellows/residents. Because of the scope of clinical and research areas housed within the Division, and the availability of collaborative possibilities, unique opportunities are present for training and for examining research questions in new and creative ways.

Event-Related Brain Potentials: Dense electrode EEGs and ERPs are used to investigate the cognitive processes such as working memory, cognitive control, and information processing in both clinical and nonclinical populations.

Shafer V.L., Shucard DW. Is the right hemisphere of the brain functionally specialized to process prosodic information from birth?. Proceedings of the 19th Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development. 1995; 2.